Emergency Medical Response Primary Assessment

Emergency Medical Response You Are the Emergency Medical Responder Your rescue unit arrives at a scene to find a distraught mother who says, “I can’t wake my baby up.” The infant appears to be unconscious and is turning blue. Lesson 9: Primary Assessment

Emergency Medical Response Primary Assessment One of the most essential aspects of an EMR is the primary assessment. You will quickly identify the following conditions:  General impression  Level of Consciousness – LOC  Airway  Breathing  Circulation

Emergency Medical Response Sizing Up a Scene  BSI – Body Substance Isolation  Scene safety – before any care is provided  Mechanism of Injury (MOI)  Nature of Illness (NOI)  Number of patients involved – Look!  Resources needed – more advanced medical personnel

Emergency Medical Response Activity You are called to the home of an older woman. Her daughter arrived at the home and found her mother lying on the kitchen floor moaning in pain and unable to move. The elderly woman is lying face-down on the floor, pointing to her right leg and mumbling that it hurts terribly. She is wearing a bathrobe and socks. There are numerous bottles of pills on the kitchen counter near the woman. There is also a small kitchen throw rug that is crumpled up near the doorway. The woman’s slippers are under the kitchen table.

Emergency Medical Response Summoning More Advanced Medical Personnel  Unconsciousness or altered LOC  Breathing problems  Prolonged chest pain or persistent abdominal pain/pressure  No pulse  Seizures, stroke or severe burns  Suspected head, neck or spinal injuries  Severe external bleeding  Suspected or open fracture

Emergency Medical Response General Impression  Look for:  Signs – evidence of injury (e.g. bleeding, skin appearance  Symptoms – what the patient reports experiencing (e.g. pain, nausea, headache, shortness of breath)  Check for immediate life-threatening conditions  Conscious  Open airway  Breathing  Pulse  Severe bleeding

Emergency Medical Response Determining LOC Remember to identify yourself, level of training, ask if you can help, explain observations, and explain what is planned  What happened?  What is your name?  Where are you?  What day of the week is it?  Adapt questions appropriate to age of patient  children/geriatric – pg 141

Emergency Medical Response AVPU A = Alert – Person, place, time V = Verbal – opens eyes to voice/sounds P = Painful – pinching collarbone/earlobe U = Unresponsive – no response to any stimuli

Emergency Medical Response Activity Upon entering the office restroom, you find a fellow co-worker lying on the floor. You notice a small gash on the back of the head that is oozing bright red blood.

Emergency Medical Response Airway Status  An open airway is necessary for breathing; without it the person cannot breathe  A person who is speaking or crying, is conscious, has an open airway, is breathing and has a pulse  Person may still be at risk for a compromised airway

Emergency Medical Response Opening the Airway  Head-tilt/chin-lift technique  No head, neck or spinal injury  Jaw-thrust (without head extension) maneuver  If head, neck or spinal injury suspected

Emergency Medical Response Breathing Status  Look for chest to rise and fall  Look, listen and feel for air escaping through the mouth and nose while checking for a definite pulse for no more than 10 seconds  In an unresponsive adult, you may detect an isolated or infrequent gasping, which can occur after the heart has stopped beating (agonal gasp). Agonal gasps are not breathing.  Care for the patient as if there is no breathing at all  Stoma

Emergency Medical Response Respiratory Rates  Normal:  Adults: 12 to 20 breaths per minute  Children: 15 to 30 breaths per minute  Infants: 30 to 50 breaths per minute  Abnormal:  Adults: 20 breaths per minute  Children: 30 breaths per minute  Infants: 60 breaths per minute

Emergency Medical Response Use of Emergency Oxygen or Ventilations  Patient who—  Is unresponsive  Is hypoxic  Is cyanotic  Has shallow respirations  Is breathing increasingly slow  Is tolerant of assisted ventilation

Emergency Medical Response Circulatory Status  Check pulse while determining breathing  Adults and child – carotid  Infants – brachial  Severe bleeding  Perfusion  Skin color  Skin temperature  Skin moisture  Capillary refill

Emergency Medical Response Primary Assessment A check for conditions that are an immediate threat to a patient’s life.

Emergency Medical Response Life Threats  Vital signs  Consciousness - LOC  Breathing – respiratory rate  Circulation – pulse & skin  Unstable patients  Reassessed every 5 minutes  Stable patients  Reassessed every 15 minutes

Emergency Medical Response Signs of Shock  Decreased responsiveness – altered LOC  Restlessness or irritability  Unresponsiveness to verbal commands  Heart rate that is too fast or too slow  Pale, ashen, cool, moist skin  Weak or no radial pulse (brachial pulse in infants)

Emergency Medical Response Measures for Shock  Control any external bleeding  Administer emergency oxygen  Lay the patient flat – supine position  Keep patient from getting chilled or overheated

Emergency Medical Response Activity You arrive at the home of an older woman. She is sitting at the kitchen table with her left hand wrapped in a kitchen towel. She said that she was chopping vegetables for dinner when the knife slipped and she cut her hand. “I just had my knives sharpened, and I guess I didn’t realize my hand was so close to the food.” The woman is pale and there is a large amount of blood seeping through the towel. You also notice a small amount of blood on the cutting board. While speaking with the woman, you notice that she is beginning to become irritable and is having trouble answering your questions.

Emergency Medical Response You Are the Emergency Medical Responder As you begin a primary assessment, you verify that the infant is unconscious.

Emergency Medical Response Enrichment Glasgow Coma Scale  Three parameters  Eye opening  Verbal response  Motor response  Score  3  coma or death  8 or less  severe brain injury  9 to 12  moderate brain injury  13 to 15  mild brain injury